When Tomas Acea told his wife, Mai-Lee Acea, he wanted to store his beloved vintage car in their living room during Hurricane Irma — she responded: “Yes, no problem, babe.”

But, under one condition — he had to figure out how to get it inside their Hialeah, Florida, home.

“I never imagined he would dismantle the sliding glass door,” she tells PEOPLE.

But, that’s exactly what Tomas did.

Tomas & Mai-Lee Acea

Tomas & Mai-Lee Acea

As it turns out, the joke was on Mai-Lee.

While she was upstairs on Friday, celebrating her small victory with a glass of wine and thinking to herself, “There is no way he can pull this off,” Tomas got busy taking apart their sliding glass doors.

And when she came downstairs, her husband was parking his 1987 Nissan 300ZX in their tiled living room.

“He’s had the project car for a few months, which he is hoping to restore,” says Mai-lee. “He’s always had a passion for these particular cars, so this one is like his child.”